This invention relates generally to wireless communications circuitry, and more particularly, to ways in which to optimize wireless communications performance by making power amplifier bias adjustments.
Integrated circuits often have wireless communications circuitry that includes radio-frequency power amplifiers. Radio-frequency power amplifiers are used to amplify radio-frequency signals for wireless transmission in a desired channel.
Radio-frequency power amplifiers typically exhibit reduced power consumption at lower supply voltages. Lowering the supply voltage that biases the power amplifiers directly decreases the supply current that flows through the radio-frequency power amplifiers, thereby saving power. Lowering the supply voltage, however, degrades power amplifier linearity. Degrading power amplifier linearity in this way may undesirably increase adjacent channel leakage ratio (e.g., the ratio of out-of-channel power to in-channel power).
It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide a method for determining an optimum supply voltage level to bias the radio-frequency power amplifiers to balance enhanced linearity with reduced power consumption.